Doug Polk

Californian Polk, born at the end of 1988 in Pasadena, has not only become one of the world’s best players, but also a leading light in the poker vlogging and training worlds.

Californian Polk, born at the end of 1988 in Pasadena, has not only become one of the world’s best players, but also a leading light in the poker vlogging and training worlds.

He started out as an eSports player before poker took over his life while at college, where he gave up his degree to concentrate on poker full-time after running up an initial $20 deposit into more than $10K.

Within a few years he had become a specialist in heads-up NLHE and challenged the king of heads-up, Ben ‘Sauce123’ Sulsky to a series of matches totalling more than 15,000 hands in the autumn of 2013, at the end of which Polk was up a staggering $740,000. This also entitled him to the $100,000 side-stake for winning.

His online game was honed as part of the self-styled ‘Evil Empire’ crew alongside fellow high-stakes players Ryan Fee and Jason Mo, with Donger Kim and Jason Les as close associates, the crew sharing ideas and strategies to conquer the world of poker.

Although primarily noted for his online mastery under the name ‘WCGRider’, Polk’s live tournament winnings also stand at over $5million, and in 2015 he started up the training site Upswing Poker along with close friend Ryan Fee.

He was also part of the 4-man team to face the AI poker program Claudico in the first of several challenge matches, emerging as the biggest winner – although more recently a superior version of Claudico gained its revenge, Polk not being part of the losing team on that occasion.

Around the same time, Polk decided to start streaming and vlogging – and his intro ‘What’s up guys, Doug Polk here’ has become synonymous with excellent hand analysis and rather controversial views on fellow pros and events in the poker world’.

Polk’s outspokenness on certain subjects has led to many calling him arrogant, but he has developed a huge following in spite of, or perhaps because of, very public disagreements with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and others.

His beef with Negreanu started when Daniel claimed he could beat the $25/50 NLHE stakes with only 2 weeks of practice, which Polk described as “naïve”, whereas in Mercier’s case the falling out centred around Polk having him tagged as a ‘bad reg’ in his online tournament notes.

More recently he came under fire from English pro Luke Schwartz, who claimed among other things that Polk is a losing player online and therefore his training courses on Upswing Poker are a ‘scam’.

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3 days ago130PokerTube,

Published 3 days ago

Doug Polk CAN'T BELIEVE Nik Airball Jams All-In

Nik Airball thrusts Doug Polk's Pocket Kings into a precarious position at Poker At The Lodge!  Offering round-the-clock cash...

1 month ago311PokerTube,

Published 1 month ago

The Viral Poker Player Everyone Is Talking About

Tesla makes a notable entrance at Poker At The Lodge, engaging in unforgettable hands against poker luminaries such as Xuan Liu, D...

1 year ago4,253PokerTube,

Published 1 year ago

$69,375 Poker Hand In Doug Polk's $50/$100 Game

Poker player and Lodge partner Doug Polk hosted a $50/$100 game on Poker At The Lodge. There were tons of insane hands, including ...

1 year ago4,140PokerTube,

Published 1 year ago

Brad OWEN vs Doug POLK [Battle Of The Lodge Card Club OWNERS!]

Brad Owen & Doug Polk are both owners at the Lodge Poker Card Club in Texas and today they battle against each other on their ...

1 year ago17,029PokerTube,

Published 1 year ago

Doug Polk Tries To Win His Own Poker Tournament (LCS Main Event Final 6)

The final 6 players of the $2 million guaranteed Lodge Championship Series Main Event battle for the trophy and the $417,800 grand...

1 year ago6,156PokerTube,

Published 1 year ago

Let's Talk About Everything (w/ Daniel Negreanu)

Daniel Negreanu rejoins the Doug Polk Podcast to discuss the cheating allegations, wild stories, and comical events that have been...

1 year ago4,629PokerTube,

Published 1 year ago

Did Phil Hellmuth Scam An Amateur?

Doug Polk investigates if Phil Hellmuth scammed amateur Slime during the Ludwig $1,000,000 cash game stream which featured Mr Beas...

1 year ago3,680Pokertube1,

Published 1 year ago

Greg Merson Talks Poker Cheating With Doug Polk

With poker cheating scandals rocking the community, Doug Polk talks to Greg Merson about blacklists, Ali and poker sites keeping p...

2 years ago3,156PokerTube,

Published 2 years ago

Doug Polk's Huge Pots From The Lodge

Playing in the Lodge poker room, Doug Polk shares with us his biggest hands from the cash game table. Grab $5 cash for free o...

Polker News, Doug Polk's Poker News Show

​It’s always a joy when one of the world’s leading players decides to share his thoughts and views on the poker world with us mere mortals, so Doug Polk’s new association with 2plus2 in producing ‘Polker News’ is more than welcomed.

Pro Rivalries: Mercier vs Polk

When a war of words broke out between the two on Twitter at the end of May, the poker community jumped on it as did fellow high-stakes players. So what kicked off the trouble?

Doug Polk Calls the Durrrr Challenge the "Largest Scam in Poker History"

Polk took to his ‘Polkernews’ program to give his thoughts on Durrrr and his thoughts on the durrrr challenge in general. He didn’t hold back.

Online Poker , 7 years ago

The Doug Polk Bankroll Challenge

Polk is playing exclusively in Nevada on WSOP.com and live streaming his sessions via his popular Twitch channel, Upswing Poker. His self-imposed task is to turn an initial $100 into a much larger $10,000.

Doug Polk Butchers "Vulture" Ben Tollerene

Polk unwittingly re-affirms something many people have found out before, that your idols might be great at what they do, but this does not always make them great people.

Online Poker , 7 years ago

Doug Polk Breaks Twitch Cash Record

​Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk's recent was a boast which nobody could complain about – his $455,000 2nd place in the WCOOP high-roller being the biggest sum ever won during a live stream!

Lauck in Luck as Polk Stakes the Main Event Winner

Jonas "llJaYJaYll" Lauck may have scooped the WCOOP Main Event and $1,517,541 but it won’t all be going in his own back pocket as it emerged that Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk had backed him.

‘A Casual Milly’ Ends A BIG $1.7M Downswing

The signs weren’t encouraging at all. Yet high-roller Doug Polk aka ‘WCGRider’ sticked with it and his grind eventually paid off in a big way finally ending his huge downswing.

Twitch: Who Is Crushing/Suffering

Long gone are the days when you had to scroll all the way down to find the Poker Twitch channel where usually there were just a several streamers trying to break through.

Poker Media: The Next Generation

As the poker community grew more and more though, the juicy and never-heard-before details of some random poker wizkid’s life become more and more enticing.